It seems to me the legislative branch is out of touch with what's going on these days, they think people are lazy and would rather stay home take funemployment checks than look for a job, ofcourse they don't seem to understand very few people can live comfortably on a 400 dollar a week check.

Cutting services kinda makes sense when we're running a massive deficit. But don't worry. Unemployment will be back. Its a political winner, just like Social Security. The dems will be able to scrounge enough votes, possibly bundling with an extension of all the Bush tax cuts.

In school we're taught the ways of darwin, the strong survive and the weak perish. I've seen the quitters get rewarded, drug addicts get pats on the back, people saying you can't punish me, I can't control my situations and actions.

I am in no means saying that I haven't quit and not get rewarded for it. Nor am I saying it's a horrible system or people shouldn't be helped. But the system is far easily abuse-able and when you actually go though the process and really do need it, you'll likely be turned away. Not to mention feel embarrassed by just needing assistance to begin with at least I would. People and I myself discredit themselves for what they are truly capable of.

Not to mention feel embarrassed by just needing assistance to begin with at least I would.

Why would I feel embarrassed? It's unemployment insurance. Let's take an analaogous insurance situation that's not so politically charged. I would embarrassed if I wreck my car, but certainly not in calling up my insurance agency to file the claim. Likewise, it was embarrassing when I got laid off, but I was never embarrassed by filing a claim for UI benefits. The only way I'd be embarrassed is if I spent years paying premiums on the insurance and then didn't access a claim to which I was entitled. I don't see shame in purchasing insurance for a specific situation, paying premiums to maintain it, then filing a claim when I fall into that exact situation by no fault of my own. On the contrary, I'd be embarrassed to tell people that I wrecked my car but didn't file a claim with my insurer on the basis of principle. Not claiming UI benefits is no different.

To be blunt, the fact that this is being held hostage as a political football is sickening. Not just because people will suffer, not just because it's god-awful policy, but because of the blatant hypocrisy of those holding it hostage.

Unemployment insurance has the second-highest multiplier of any major government program (after food stamps), at something north of 1.6. Unemployed people spend unemployment benefits because they need to in order to meet day-to-day expenses (Why the heck else would we be giving it to them?). Moreover, these are the people who need help, often of little or no fault of their own - it's the morally correct thing to do.

It costs us ~80B to extend unemployment insurance for a whole year. We have Republicans blocking an extension (of a lesser period than a year even) over the claim that we can't afford it, at the same time they insist on extending the tax cuts for upper earners at a similar average annual cost (tax cuts have multiplier effects of 0.3 and lower, lessening as you go up the income ladder - it's a terrible way to do fiscal policy). They have not given a logically consistent argument on why this makes sense because they cannot do so - and watching Republicans try to defend their positions on the two major contested fiscal issues currently before Congress is cringe-worthy.

If I had a nickle for every time I cringed at recent Republican fiscal rhetoric because it so blatantly doesn't add up, I could pay for an extension of unemployment benefits.

Originally Posted by Fire2box

In school we're taught the ways of darwin, the strong survive and the weak perish. I've seen the quitters get rewarded, drug addicts get pats on the back, people saying you can't punish me, I can't control my situations and actions.

Have we really so lost the hard-fought lessons of history that we're giving serious consideration to Social Darwinism?

There was a certain period in history called the Gilded Age. It was a particularly unjust period in our history.

Wait so you're telling me that people in the USA get $400 a week if they're unemployed?!?!?!
My god you might have to make do without the ivory tower extension to the house. Go live in Belarus. I get $700 a month (with a house) AND I work full time.

Wait so you're telling me that people in the USA get $400 a week if they're unemployed?!?!?!
My god you might have to make do without the ivory tower extension to the house. Go live in Belarus. I get $700 a month (with a house) AND I work full time.

Nobody has quoted a number. According to this article, the average unemployment benefit for a single unemployed person is $293, and the benefit is taxable. $293*52 = $15,236. The poverty line for a single person is $10,830. $4,500 above the official poverty line isn't exactly an awesome existence.

...and it's worse than that. The unemployed are reasonable people with reasonable expenses like reasonable home and car loans that they took out with reasonable finances from a reasonable job with reasonable job security, and who have often set reasonable roots in their community with reasonable families who have reasonable objections to massive upheaval in their lives. 1.5 times the poverty line doesn't make ends meet when you planned your finances around the middle class job which you held for 15 years before getting laid off and the 3rd year of an economic downturn wiped out your reasonably-sized rainy-day fund a year and a half ago.